Should I ever be offered a seat on Santa’s trans-continental sleigh, upfront or in the jump seat ... I’m in!
However, as I still occasionally have to stay off the naughty list occasionally, I am more likely to be stuck in Comfort Plus, Business Class, or Coach during holiday travel.
This year, my youngest daughter and I are heading to the Big Apple for an “Elf”-"-style Christmas in the city that never sleeps.
We’ll be staying at a family-favorite hotel in Midtown, with the same name as my firstborn child, The Barclay. Planning several New York tourist jaunts to see the massive Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, then the nearby Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes and Santa Claus. With tickets for the latter exceeding the price of our airline flights, that kick line better be good.
Though I expect to encounter only a few masks this year, we are both well-vaccinated and accustomed to travel.
And holiday-period travel reminds me that experience is far from universal.
Triple-A projects that 119 million Americans will be on the road or flying in the not-so-friendly skies between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
The world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, expects nearly four million passengers to go through its seven concourses and several hundred gates during that same period. That equals roughly half the metro New York City population through one airport in just over a week.
Weather and flight delays during these jammed flight weeks are more customary than not.
Tight flight connections can add another layer of anxiety. However, except for the light crowds during the COVID-19 years, I’ve not seen a holiday travel season without witnessing one or more passenger meltdowns. Most of these occurred in the terminal and were aimed at gate agents, but a few also came in the air.
Travel delays cascade, and foul weather at one major airport or hub on the East Coast can impact the entire system.
Passengers grow sullen and increasingly insistent on answers for adjusted departure and landing times. They may speak profanity and swear off an air carrier, typically cursing the agent or flight attendant NOT in charge of the proceedings.
So, if you are traveling with me, please pack your patience and understanding. When an airline or airport is operating at capacity and is impacted by foul weather or even a mechanical breakdown, your foul mood will not change the weather forecast or expedite an answer on when your flight will take off.
Similarly, on the flight, cold air from Canada and points north can mix with warmer tropic air and hot pockets, causing turbulence or even times when the hot air moves above the cold, making the jet seemingly enter a dramatic drop. Remember, hot air lifts and rises; cold air, not so much.
If you think about the sheer number of passengers, packages, and luggage moving from points A to B to C in such compressed time frames, it really is a marvel of logistics. That is until you or your flight becomes the cog jamming a sometimes-overwrought system.
My three-part treatment plan is to reduce your agita and better prepare you for your destination.
First, consider train travel where Amtrak does go. Rail travel has its logistical challenges, primarily caused by freight traffic, but I vastly prefer the slower pace, time to rest, write, or converse with other passengers and see the country in a way that few now do.
Olivia, like me, loves trains so that we will be returning from NYC on the Crescent, sort of the Polar Express in reverse. From the Great White North, we will head south into the hopefully snow-covered Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, then the Blue Ridge Mountains, later Charlotte, and eventually, mid-Christmas morning, back home in Atlanta.
When traveling with children, turn the various traumas of travel into a game or competition. Keep a loose score and award the BEST traveler with their first choice of restaurant when you reach your holiday destination. At some point, you likely will be dining out anyway.
And try to remember, even IF the airport or weather in transit is hellish, there are plenty of people out and about with nowhere to go, no one to see, and possibly not even a warm home to sit in alone. You and yours are amply blessed, so try to turn that frown upside down, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and safe holiday travels to all.